 A visit with Executive Chef Janelle Weaver of Kuleto Estate Winery.
Confucius says, “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
High in the mountains overlooking the fertile Napa Valley lives a woman who seems to have achieved the Confucian ideal. Her life’s work brings her closer to bliss each and every day.
Janelle Weaver is Executive Chef at Kuleto Estate Winery (www.kuletoestate.com), located in the Hennessey Basin on the eastern edge of the Napa Valley. She wakes each morning to the sound of woodpeckers tapping trees outside her bedroom window. Her daily commute is a two mile hike through some of the most spectacular scenery in America. She toils in the kitchen of a charming stone building where she prepares rabbit terrine or duck confit, and she finishes each day with a fabulous glass of wine. If hard, fulfilling work brings one closer to bliss, this talented young woman must have the best job in the world.
I sat down with Janelle on a crisp, clear morning last fall to chat about her life as a Napa Valley winery chef. The setting was idyllic – a patio jutting out over a hillside vineyard that rolled off down to a private lake gleaming like polished silver under the morning sun.
We sipped glasses of Kuleto Estate Rosato as we talked. Janelle described the Rosato as a light-hearted celebratory wine that pairs nicely with appetizers or lunches including meats or poultry. She had paired the Rosato this morning with freshly picked figs, duck sausage, rabbit terrine (one of her specialties), sliced pears, and locally produced Redwood Hill Farm Camellia, a Camembert-style artisan goat cheese.
Janelle is responsible for all aspects of food preparation at Kuleto. She spends her days planning menus, tending to her gardens, picking fruit from the orchards, plucking caper berries from their bushes, and coordinating the slaughter of the winery’s animals with the next full moon.
Janelle and other Kuleto staff members birth, raise, and harvest the animals Janelle later prepares for meals. Visitors tend to find this surprising, but Janelle asks, “How can you be removed from your food source?” She finds it strange that other people are comfortable purchasing bleached chicken breasts wrapped in plastic and packaged on slabs of Styrofoam.
At Kuleto, chickens, lambs, goats, ducks, and turkeys live as they would on your grandmother’s farm. Poultry strut in and out of a comfy coop, lambs and goats are petted and loved, turkeys are nurtured and prized, and pigs are honored and tended mindfully. It’s a natural way of living where the cycles of life are respected.
Janelle is a great communicator who was eager to explain what it means to live close to the land and to reap its bountiful produce. Her communication skills also help her give lively titles to dishes and menus she and her staff prepare for celebrity chefs, corporations, area businesses, and winemakers. Appetizing titles like Estate Leg of Lamb Wrapped in Swiss Chard; Spinach & Chèvre Noir Stuffed Chicken Breast; Braised Puy Lentils & Fennel Parsnip Mirepoix; Dungeness Crab and Truffle Bisque; and Duck Confit in a Nest of Miso Marinated Soba Noodles.
 Janelle finds challenges on evenings when she serves six or seven courses to Thomas Keller and his colleagues, highlighting some of her signature dishes, or preparing the tasting menus for the Kuleto Estate Food & Wine Pairings.
I was awed by the passion this fine chef has for her job and her quality of life among the vineyards. Her devotion to what she proudly describes as her “grandmother’s food heritage” and way of life is astounding. One of Janelle’s predilections, which her grandmother passed along to her, is fondness for cooking with eggs, and especially for using them in custards. Janelle uses duck eggs, dove eggs, quail eggs—whatever is available to her immediately and collected on the premises. She even has a dish titled A Once-a-Season Soup with “Garlic Toast” & a Quail Egg, Happily Sitting, Sunnyside Up. Regarding custard desserts, Janelle’s theory is that they should be tasty and simple. This was also her grandmother’s view. “Ingredients should be fresh, as fresh as eggs gathered that very morning,” she asserted.
Winery owner Pat Kuleto has brought together a remarkable staff – people who share his vision of making great wine in harmony with the environment. Winemaker Dave Lattin proudly escorted me through the fermentation room, where he had me taste and listen to his young wines. (Yes, you can hear grapes fermenting if you listen closely.) Lattin’s staff is pleased with the recent bountiful harvest. The truck and tractor drivers, who cleverly maneuver their gigantic vehicles along the narrow, winding lane that runs up to the estate, are proud of the work they do and the reasons they do it. Later that morning, as Janelle Weaver and I walked past Pat Kuleto’s home, the pater familias himself – paterviniculturas might be a better phrase – ran out to greet us like an excited schoolboy. He wanted to be sure I knew that his wines now are being served in “80 restaurants in New York City!”
Fortunately for me, Kuleto’s wines were also being served in Napa County on the fall morning when I visited. My chat with Janelle was complete, and it was time for a tasting – one of the most divine and memorable series of dishes I’ve ever enjoyed, and a master course in wine and food pairing. It truly was Napa Nirvana for this little ole’ food writer from Austin, Texas.
Wine Food
2006 Kuleto Estate Chardonnay
Scallops wrapped in Iberico Pork with a roasted-bones reduction over pears, Swiss chard, small white beans, and corn.
2006 Pinot Noir
Rouen duck breast roulade atop a turnip and potato pavé.
2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
End-of-Season zucchini and squash with foie gras sauce and wild Chanterelle mushrooms.
2006 Zinfandel
Egg custard atop ginger crust with Moscato-grape simple syrup layered with peach preserve and crystallized ginger.
Kuleto Estate Winery
2470 Sage Canyon Road
St. Helena, CA 94574
707.963.9750
http://www.kuletoestate.com/
Trish Bales is a personal chef, writer, and singer who lives in Austin, TX. Questions or comments? Email Trish:
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